He was a pupil of Antonio Isopi and worked for Leo von Klenze, mainly in Munich where in 1830 he became Professor of Sculpture at the Polytechnic, now the Technical University.

After elementary school, in 1810, Ernst Mayer was apprenticed to Antonio Isopi, the Italian sculptor working for the king.

From 1821 to 1825 Mayer was in Rome and again worked for von Wagner, who acquired antique statues for crown prince and future king Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Back in Munich, Mayer continued restoring antique statues, but also created sculptures of his own, including the pediment figures for the Glyptothek building, among them three antique artists representing the crafts that Mayer himself practised: the modeller (Koroplastes), the bronze caster (Statuarius) and the stone sculptor (Glyptos).

Mayer died in Munich at the age of 47 on 21 January 1844 of a skull fracture after a fall on ice in front of his workshop.